Gentrification and Memory
J. Quinn Brisben 23 JUN 2003
I prefer co-ordinates of time
And space to be exact even when
Populated by ghosts not made by me,
So this was on a not particularly unlucky
Friday the Thirteenth, June, 2003,
When we were on our way to a leaky-
Roofed roomful of peaceful people when
Peace was unpopular with the president
And those who ran him to hear an old
Friend and comrade speak feelingly
Of past resistances not entirely
Lost and plans for futures not
Bright but not entirely hopeless.
On Division between Damen and Hoyne
Are many upscale restaurants, and we
Ate in one where the cheapest wine
Cost twenty-five dollars a bottle;
That is one hundred times what
A shot of bar whiskey cost on that block
In the late 1940s when a character
Invented by Nelson Algren and called
The Sparrow got busted so often
On that corner that he thought the charge
Drunk and disorderly, shortened to d and d
At the station, meant Damen and Division.
Now they serve little whiskey here except
Over-advertised sour mash and single-malt
Scotch, never the kind that burned through
Varnish at two bits a shot back when
The dealer with the monkey on his back,
Hooked on morphine from his army kit,
Listened for the one howl of Antek the Owner’s
Deaf cat that told you that the drink you
Just took, the needle you just jabbed, the bet
You just made had doomed you now forever.
Once I played poker with Algren
Not far from here on Evergreen;
He was a lousy player, so in love
With losers that he had to keep
Losing himself out of pure love,
And once I drank with my son in
The last low-life tavern in the ‘hood,
When we had to be missing
From his house for a girl party:
Not losers, but a bit in love
With ease and drifting downward.
Now old-timers would be busted
On this block even before ordering
Their first shot and a beer, for drift
Is upward here, toward domination,
And empire, but odds are still
Always with the dealer, so everyone
Dies: people, empires, even gentrified
Streets; and only the Sparrow and
Frankie Machine and the others
Live indelibly and forever.
